6-core Nehalem coming to LGA 1366 this year
Sources close to Intel say the company will release a 6-core Nehalem derivative in roughly the same timeframe as its upcoming Lynnfield processors.
Our sources said that the new chip will drop into existing X58/LGA1366 motherboards with a BIOS update. We’re told that most board manufacturers have already added support, so unless you’re running an outdated BIOS release, there’s no need to worry about whether your board will work with the new chip or not.
It will sit alongside the Core i7 975 on this platform as Intel plans to discontinue every other Core i7 CPU later this year. What was interesting though was that the new chip apparently won’t fit under the Core i7 moniker. When probed, the sources said that Intel hadn’t finalised the name for this chip but were fairly certain that it wouldn’t fall under the i7 brand.
While we were talking about Intel’s current (and future) branding strategy, the source said that Intel had referred to its Lynnfield processors under the ‘Core i5’ moniker all along, which of course raises questions about Intel’s earlier statement. It could, however, be that Intel has decided to re-think its branding strategy for all of its new CPUs.
Discuss in the forums.
Previous Article
22 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyDid i read this right? the 6 core CPU will be able to use exactly the same motherboards as the existing i7's?
If so, then that's the obvious update for an i7 rather than a i5.
Any plans for a 6-core chip for skt 1156?
i7 discontinued, to be replaced by i5 which may actually offer better performance ?
new 6 core chip for the top end... certainly wont be called i6 which implies 'lesser'.
crazy. I actually think it all started to go wrong with the Core Duo and Core2 Duo branding which was also lame.
Windows 7
Core i7
Just an idea :P
As far as I understand it Intel aren't replacing i7 with i5. Only some early i7 chips are being discontinued, new chips will continue to be release under the i7 name. i5 is the new less-hardcore range that should sit under i7. Some of the higher end i5's will no doubt be faster than some of the lower i7's but the i7 architecture overall is more hardcore, what with it having triple channel DDR etc that I believe i5 won't have.
Core Duo = 2 cores
Core 2 Duo = 2 cores
Core 2 Quad = 4 cores
Core i7 = 4 cores / 8 threads
Core i5 (may) = 6 cores?
For high street consumers, the naming scheme is extremely confusing. It's probably as bad, or worse, as NVIDIA's naming schemes.
For example, most high street customers assume that 'Core 2' means 2 cores.
A smaller percentage of consumers think 'Core 2 Duo' means 2 plus 2 cores.
Some people ( not enthusiasts ) think that 'Core i7' means a new cpu with 7 cores.
Intel should completely drop the 'core' branding if the name refers to a chip generation or anything other than the actual number of cores.
I believe NVIDIA and INTEL deliberately seek to confuse the public. So a Core i7 sounds like it has more cores than it actually does. A new NVIDIA graphics card is given a name that prevents most people from realising it is based on old architecture and is no different from another card with a different name.
I believe that the i7 platform will be high-end enthusiast only. i.e. Very expensive.
There will be virtually only extreme chips. They are expensive to make and intel wants its profit margins back.
i5 will be mainstream, with high-end 4 core, 8 thread, and dual channel memory.
low end will be 2 or 4 cores with integrated graphics on chip.
the 4 core ones will come at a later date, on smaller process.
We may see 6 cores on i5, but not for a while.
AMD might get lucky, they have had integrated memory controllers for quite a while now, and adding a third or fourth channel would up the pin count, and give them new success.
Won't happen until a new socket tho, just not enough pins atm...
Gamers may be stuck with 4 core 8 thread chips, and very powerful GPU's (DX11 etc...).
Are we going to be CPU limited because of our budget ?
If a high end i5 is going to limit GPU's in SLi or Crossfire, then what ?
What if even overclocked it stayed CPU limited ?
6-core AMD ?
8-core AMD ?
Not with only two memory channels....6 maybe, but having three cores per memory channel is a little much...large cache will help, but yet again = big chip.
I'm not sure why intel brought in the i7 only to take it way way up to the top only....
Anyway, apart from that I think their new positioning actually makes some sense. 1156 for the mainstream, 1336 for tech demo/extravagant setups/server applications. Now all they need is a proper way of communicating that, and they'll be fine.
AMD's CPUs are good, no questions asked, but if they don't come up with something as fast as i5 they'll be in major trouble by the end of the year I guess.
286
386
486
Pentium
Pentium II
Pentium III
Pentium IV
Intel Core
Intel Core 2
then i7 was going to be called Intel Core 3, but changed their mind because apparently calling it i7 makes it easier in the future to distinguish which are the best processors. I am guessing they will give higher numbers to superior processors, for example i8 may be to core i7 what the 45nm core2 chips are to the 65nm core2 chips.
Possibly.
I may upgrade to a Q6700 if I feel I need more CPU power.
No.
Core i5 is either 4 cores/4 threads or 4 cores/8 threads, depending on the model.
New Core i7 CPUs will be 6 cores/12 threads.
And I completely agree with you: the naming aproach is insane.
So as far as upgrading goes, it just means that you have to do a bit more leg work :)
seems to follow the modern trend of apple adding "i" to everything.